


Blackmail is the family business

by elizabethnotbennet



Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, also Greg/Tom, but they try sometimes, not Gerri or Roman tho, the roy children don't know how to be human, theres a suggestion of Kendall/Stewy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethnotbennet/pseuds/elizabethnotbennet
Summary: “The truth is,” Roman get’s impossibly still. Kendall continues,“...my father is a malignant presence...” and he looks at her, panic bubbling over.“Go,” she says, and Roman is out of the room before she can tell him to leave his phone behind.This is my take on the Gerri/Roman side of events portrayed in Mutually Advantageous Arrangements by LearnedFoot. Though it follows the same events (mostly, I hope!), this fic can be read on its own, too.
Relationships: Gerri Kellman/Roman "Romulus" Roy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	Blackmail is the family business

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mutually Advantageous Arrangements](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865507) by [LearnedFoot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LearnedFoot/pseuds/LearnedFoot). 



> Thanks to multilingualism for betaing this one for me! 💛 All remaining mistakes are still mine, though.

The morning after the dinner, a helicopter takes Kendall and Greg away and shortly after that Roman appears in her room. It’s barely after six, but Gerri isn’t really surprised they’re all up. If she really thinks about it, she doubts Roman slept at all. She certainly didn’t.

The press conference is scheduled for 11am New York time, so they have the whole day ahead. There’s an eerie quiet in the boat aside from the occasional sounds of boats and helicopters coming to take the other guests away, and by noon it’s just the family staying behind. Well, the family who matters, Connor having left as soon as it was clear he wasn’t getting any wire transfers today. And, of course, Gerri.

It comes rather fast, really. They’re watching it on his phone, sitting on her bed, side by side, Roman still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Kendall starts talking, and she can feel Roman tensing up beside her, scoots a little closer, not completely sure how to comfort him really. He doesn’t take his eyes off of his brother until they hear it. When the second half of that sentence starts with “The truth is,” Roman get’s impossibly still. Kendall continues,“...my father is a malignant presence...” and he looks at her, panic bubbling over.

“ _Go,_ ” she says, and Roman is out of the room before she can tell him to leave his phone behind.

She scrambles to get her own phone to the livestream, and when she does Kendall is still going on.

“...notion that he would have allowed millions of dollars in settlements and compensation to be paid without his explicit approval... is utterly fanciful.

“I have with me, today, copies of records... that show his personal sign off...”

Her stomach drops, and she knows that this will come back to bite her. Somehow, Logan will turn this on her.

* * *

They get married the next morning, in a judge’s chambers, with his assistant as a witness. Them both being seen together at city hall might not automatically make people think marriage but they agree that right now taking the safest route is for the best.

Afterwards Gerri takes him to her house, without saying a word the whole way, and turns on some type of classical music over her speakers like they’re in a spy movie or something. She tells him to leave his phone and Apple Watch on the table beside hers and heads to the garden without any more explanation.

Once they’re in the middle of the backyard she asks him if he’s got any more devices on him, and he tries not to take it personally that she either thinks he’s stupid or doesn’t totally trust him.

Then she tells him everything.

The amount of crap Gerri had to bury for his dad shouldn’t surprise him, but it still does, a little. She details the ways in which the papers his brother claims to have in his possession could point back to her, how she was directly involved in several of the payoffs, the paper trails, and more recently the digital ones. Before ATN had gotten involved in the whole _we-are-listening_ thing, before they wised up and stopped emailing and texting each other about shit like this. He knows what the set of her shoulders mean, though, knows she has a plan. Trusts that there is nothing in the world she cannot fix.

“You remember Delilah, your dad’s secretary?”

“I.. The small one? About my height when I was ten?”

“You’re still the same height as when you were ten. But yes, her.” It makes her feel horrible, dirty, just like the first time she looked around and realised that she was already way too deep and tainted by the whole mess the Roys create. That she helps create too, now. “He… Well, she left. Abandoned her position, just disappeared without notice. Your dad didn’t seem too surprised or bothered by it, aside from the mild inconvenience of having to explain his coffee order again.”

Roman crosses his arms around himself, like he knows what’s about to come. “In ’98 he asked me to draft an NDA for something personal; the language was general enough that he thought I didn’t know what it was for. There was a money trail. Pretty consistent payments, until 2015. Then there’s a considerable payment made to another account.” Her lips are pinched, and he knows she hates to be here, hates to _use_ this like it’s a trump card. But there’s a reason she’s kept this in the back of her mind all these years. It’s her way out. “I never looked into it, but… I know where to look.”

They both know she’s not asking for his permission or his help. It goes unsaid that she wanted him to know, wanted him to not be blindsided by this if it needs to be used. Roman nods, looking at the ground. He might not be a math genius, but there’s almost 20 years in the timeline. Close enough to 18 that he can guess what it’s about. “Do I need to spit in a cup or something?”

If that surprises her, she doesn’t show. “It’s not necessary for it to work, but it would help, yes.” Her hand twitches by her side, as if she wants to reach out, touch him. “If you’re up to it.”

“Yeah, I can spit in a cup.” he shrugs, like it’s nothing. “You really think he’d go after you?” He looks away, doesn’t let her reply. “That—that’s a _stupid_ question, sorry. It’s going to work though, right?”

He tries not to fixate on the fact that she doesn't answer him right away.

* * *

Two days after the press conference there’s the dinner.

She coaches him on their way from the office and they keep strategizing until they get to Kendall’s makeshift office. They talk about what they think his siblings want—Kendall wants allies, and Shiv wants a seat at the table and maybe, if there’s any room left, one for Tom too. What they’re willing to give them—Kendall can have the illusion of allies, Shiv can have a seat for Tom, but not for herself. If they give her a hand she’ll grab the whole arm. He’s listening, contributing too. But he’s not totally there. Gerri can sense it, probably, but if she does, she doesn’t mention it. It’s the first time he’ll meet his siblings after the whole thing blew up, and Delilah’s face keeps coming back to him, for some reason. It makes him uncomfortable, dirty, and not because of the whole blackmail thing. God knows he’s done _that_ before.

But there’s a kid somewhere in Virginia with a trust fund and half his DNA, and he can’t even bring it up with his siblings. Can’t bring it up at all. His _therapist_ doesn’t know about it. Not that he’s currently regularly going to therapy, but he’s still paying, so maybe that means he still does it?

Turns out Kendall has a plan to deal with the takeover attempt, which Roman suddenly realises he hasn’t thought about in over 48 hours, and he was literally _kidnapped_ because of it. That’ll take a while to forgive Kendall for, even though it’s not really his fault. Kendall’s plan involves a private investor, which also helps on keeping their father out of congressional hearings and maybe—hopefully? Roman doesn’t even know how he feels about it yet—out of jail, too. That gets them talking about the Cruises situation, which is really what they’re here for, technically.

“I understand the sentiment in trying to keep your father out of the spotlight, and it’s probably wise, considering… I have to tell you that if there’s an investigation — _when_ there’s an investigation— they’re going to find things. About Mo and a few others from the old guard, but about Logan, too.” Gerri speaks for the first time since Greg and Tom left, and none of the Roy children seem surprised.

There’s a lull in their conversation, like they’re all thinking about the full weight of that, and Roman starts playing with the hair on the nape of her neck with the arm that’s been around her chair since this started. She should chastise him, remind him there’s company, but when she looks at him he’s staring into space, thoughtful, and this unconscious need for contact from him fills her with such warmth that she can’t move. A loud splashing sound comes from the kitchen, like someone dropped a cup in the filled up sink, and Roman snaps out of it, bringing his arm back to his side.

“These things…you mentioned, about dad,” Kendall begins to ask in a low tone. “Ho- how many are there? When did it start?”

Gerri takes a deep breath, looks at each of them in turn, maybe stalling for time a little. “Starting from when I would have heard about it, officially at least, I—” She clears her throat, and Roman presses his foot against hers under the table. “The first I could have heard about it was around ’94.”

“They installed the glass walls when I was 22. I remember because it was in my senior year at Harvard. Was that… related, in any way?” Kendall’s pressing for more information, and Roman really doesn’t understand this need to know about these things. He certainly doesn’t want to.

“There were… rumours. Of some things. Female secretaries or personal assistants coming out of his office crying.”

Shiv flinches, and goes impossibly more pale. “Okay, I don’t think we need to hear the details.” She closes her eyes, presses a hand to her forehead. “We need a backup plan for the hostile takeover, and I think we should discuss who’s going to take over, now that dad doesn’t really have much of a say. We’ll need to convince the board.”

They go back to talking strategies, talking about the CEO and COO roles. Roman feels like he’s close to something, there’s a thread at the back of his mind but he can’t look at it, not right now. Not when they’re so openly negotiating, and Gerri can’t exactly argue his side here.

By the time Tom and Greg walk out of the kitchen, they have decided nothing about the future of the company. There’s some resemblance of a plan for trying to raise the price, mentions of golden parachutes and poison pills that flew right over his head mostly, but Gerri was more talkative in those matters, so he trusts their interests were being looked after in that aspect. They don’t decide much about which one of them is getting to head the company, and now that Shiv has very publicly admitted to wanting it, they don’t really have any extra votes lying around. It’s not like Connor’s opinion matters.

It doesn’t take long for his mind to go back to his father and glass walls and crying women. They’re almost at Gerri’s place when it hits him, he realises why this surprise half sibling thing has made him so uncomfortable. It makes him _sick_. There’s barely any time for him to get to the toilet, after she unlocks the apartment.

* * *

They don’t really talk about it over the next few days. They have a lot of ‘secret’ meetings with the shareholders to talk about the proxy fight, a coordinated effort between the Roy children, and they take some other meetings with prospective investors. There’s the _secret_ secret meetings with board members about Gerri and the CEO position, and he only feels a little bad about stabbing his siblings on the back. It’s not like Kendall hasn’t tried to take the company from the family’s control, and then sold their dad out on national television. Shiv’s not so innocent either, with her secret orchestrations to take over after dad.

And besides, it makes sense to have Gerri there. She’s been in the company since forever, and though Kendall has been training for this all his life, he’s clearly not up to it yet. It’s the second time he’s basically handed the company to Sandy on a silver platter, and that’s only counting the last year. Roman doesn’t even think about how unprepared _he_ is for this compared to Gerri. He’s getting there, really. And at least he hasn’t betrayed his family yet. Not until now.

They have an executive meeting and he feels like he’s _on fire_ , they spent most of the weekend going over plans, and he’s full of ideas. He presents them with confidence come Monday morning, and he even gets people who aren’t sleeping with him to back some of his plans. Not that he’s slept with Gerri, like, ever. _Yet_.

They talk one night and decide to approach Kendall. Gerri _does_ want to retire… Eventually. So they get a plan together, a public redemption of Kendall’s scandals, a timeline of him gradually coming back into the fold, ending with Roman as his right hand. It takes a little convincing for Roman to be totally on board with it, but Gerri argues her position isn’t sustainable, not without the Roy surname behind her. Despite them already being married, he almost proposes again right then. He does, a little. She could change her name. She just rolls her eyes and keeps working.

Kendall folds more easily than Roman expected, so maybe there’s something going on there. He should probably check in with his brother more often, now that they’re all in such delicate headspaces. There’s a few conference calls just the three of them, and they soon bring Karolina into it in order to plan the optics of it all.

It’s like an open secret that _something_ is happening in the C-suite, though the CEO and COO themselves don’t talk about it. He starts to get more into the rhythm of it all, pays more attention to meetings than his ADHD brain ever allowed him to, he participates. So what if Gerri’s whispered quips on his ears have anything to do with it. They’re doing pretty good overall.

* * *

“I pulled a couple of suitcases from the upper cabinet, Rome, I put yours by your door,” she says, coming into the office and going straight to her computer, barely sparing him a glance. “I’ll just finish these up while my hair dries and then it’ll only be a few minutes until we can go, is that alright?”

Roman looks up and is immediately enraptured. She’s got her hair half up, curls framing her face and down her neck. The computer screen is enveloping her in a blueish glow, giving an aura that is almost ethereal. Roman can _hear_ those thoughts go through his mind, and he’d be the first to say that this line of thought is complete bullshit. Then she turns to him, faintly amused and maybe a little concerned. “Rome?”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll just finish these up. Uh, thanks.”

Gerri chuckles, and Roman finds that it’s extremely easy to fall into that bullshit mindspace. She’s looking at him, and the light is shining from her computer and through her slowly drying curls, almost giving her an actual halo. Or maybe a crown would be more appropriate. Her facial expression, slowly going from amused to concerned is what snaps him out of it.

Slapping his laptop closed with probably more force than necessarily and carelessly throwing it on the sofa, he stands and leaves without saying a word. Whatever was happening there would surely not follow him. Maybe if he walks fast enough this line of thinking would stay behind.

But he’s not so lucky. In the process of making his suitcase, it dawns on him that he’s sort of moved in with her? The closet in the guestroom holds his clothes, the first drawer in the bathroom is his. Roman suddenly finds it is very hard to breathe. It doesn’t even make any sense to panic over this. He’s moved in with other girlfriends, right? Tabitha was living with him within the week, basically. Why is this the one that makes him panic? _Girlfriend?_ And _oh fuck._ They’re actually _married_.

Gerri finds him like that, standing in the middle of the room with a toothbrush in one hand and his eye cream on another.

“Roman. Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just, you know,” he gestures vaguely with his toothbrush at the direction of his head, “thinking.” Her entrance into the room sets him back into motion, throwing his things haphazardly into his bag.

“Yeah, that must take a lot of energy for you.”

He makes a face at her. “Fuck you.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“About fucking you? Sure!”

Her eyebrows raise, and she looks thoroughly unimpressed. “About what you’re thinking about.” Roman looks at her, and for a split second he almost does. He feels everything bubbling up on his throat, like if he so much as opens his mouths everything will spill out and drown her. So he doesn’t. He zips his bag up instead, moves to where his phone is plugged in charging, completely ignoring her. “Right. I’ll leave you to it then.”

She’s almost out of the room when he calls her back. “We’re.. We’re okay, right?” It doesn’t make sense, and he doesn’t know where it comes from.

Gerri smiles at him softly, “Yeah. We’ll leave in thirty, okay?”

* * *

They’re waiting a while until Kendall arrives with _Stewy_ , of all people, and the four of them share a helicopter to the Hamptons. The other helicopter takes Shiv and Tom and it makes him laugh, because _what is this?_ A Roy siblings quadruple date weekend, everyone and their dysfunctional significant others? Greg’s there too, though, on the second helicopter. But then who’s he to judge, really? He’s brought general counsel, and his brother is bringing the viper on their nest, so what if his sister decided to take her husband’s boyfriend, too?

The weekend is mostly bullshit; it doesn’t take long for him to realize that. No one says anything about Gerri or Stewy being there, and it’s just like they’ve always done. They don’t talk about whatever elephant’s in the room. Connor’s imposed a “no business talk” rule, which means there is extremely little they manage to talk about at all, really. The afternoon is stilled and awkward, and dinner is barely bearable thanks to Willa’s and Greg’s conversation starters, of all things. By the time he makes it into Gerri’s room later that night, he’s ready to burst with pent up energy.

It doesn’t take long until she orders him to lay down on the bed, and from then on they slip into their routine pretty easily. This time he doesn’t leave, though. He cleans himself up in the bathroom and comes back into the room to find her curled up on the end of the couch with a book. He sits down on the other end, feels himself shrinking, pulls his knees up against his chest.

If he was anyone else, Roman would say the universe was pushing him to talk about this. His half awake brain that morning certainly was trying very hard to get him to _think_ about his feelings, and then the bizarre realisation on the helipad about his and his siblings' weird love lives…

“When I got to the yacht, after… I tried to propose to Ken and Shiv that we talk about our _feelings,_ of all things.”

There’s a joke about Roman and proposals there somewhere, but Gerri instinctively knows this isn’t the time. “Yeah?”

“They didn’t exactly take me up on it”

“I imagine they wouldn’t.”

“I wanted to, though.” He’s not looking at her, instead looking down and picking at invisible threads in his pants, but he’s got her full attention. She’s put her book aside and turned fully towards him, trying to translate whatever it is he’s trying to say, because it’s apparent this isn’t about his siblings. “I tried.”

She remembers the way he’d been looking at her that morning, and it hits her that maybe this is… Something? She doesn’t know if she’s entirely prepared to think about her feelings towards Roman Roy right now, but this is happening, clearly.

“Are you… happy? With this?”

That question surprises her, and it takes a while for her to formulate a response. “I—”

“I mean, _what_ is this, even?” His energy changes so suddenly it gives her whiplash. He’s on his feet in a second, pacing around. Still clearly guarded and on the defensive, with his arms wrapped around him. “We’re practically living together, but we have yet to, like, hold hands or some other crap!”

“Rome—”

“Why are we even living together, really. When did _that_ happen?” He turns to her like she’s got any clue, which she obviously doesn’t. Probably. He thinks. “ We are _married._ ” His voice goes a bit higher, like he’s desperate, and Gerri starts to worry someone might actually hear them in this desert of a house. “ _How_ did that even happen? We never even did the whole hand holding crap! And what _are_ we even, is this some kind of—”And maybe he is spiralling. A little.

“Roman.” She doesn’t raise her voice at all, but her tone is pretty clear. “Have you talked to your therapist about this?”

“About us living together, or about us being actually _married_?”

“Sure, yeah, and about what you’re feeling.” He suddenly snaps to attention. _What did he say in that rant?_ And maybe she notices, because she completes, “About your doubts.”

“I don’t have _doubts_ , that’s the problem,” he half mutters.

“What do you mean?”

“Actually, yeah, I _do_ have doubts.” He’s still standing, and she wishes she knew how to call him to her side. He’s anxious and it makes her feel like she needs to sooth him somehow, help him come back down. He looks away, and it’s like he’s steeling himself or something. “Am I… Is this only me? Did I force my way into your home without realising?”

“Have you ever known me to bend down to anyone’s will?”

“I mean.. Yeah, no. Not really.” It seems it was the right thing to say, because he finally drops his arms. “I just.. What do you get out of this? Do you… like it?” He can practically hear the ‘ _Do you like me?_ ’ in his question, and honestly, what is this? Seventh grade?

“Of course I like it, Rome.” He hates that it melts him and builds him up at the same time. He feels all fuzzy and warm and _what is this._ He hopes he’s not projecting when he hears the implicit ‘ _I like you_ ’ in her tone, too. “We have been moving in weird ways, and well.. It’s not really the traditional order of things, but I don’t expect you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I get it.”

“I want to, though. I mean. The hand holding crap.” He looks at her, almost pleading, and it’s a relief when she smiles at that. “And the other stuff too I guess.”

“Other stuff?” Gerri’s tone is a little teasing, but she also needs him to be frank. Is he talking about dating? Sex? Affection?

“I mean, yeah, everything, I think.”

It should surprise her that it’s like he’s reading her thoughts, but it doesn’t really. “Yeah, me too.” she pats the space next to her on the couch, thinks maybe it’s enough that they’re learning this new language together. “Is this what had you preoccupied this morning?”

“Yeah” he almost breathes it out, and the only reason she hears it is because the house is dead silent in the middle of the night. “I think this could really be something. You and me.”

She smiles at him. “Me too.”

They stay there for a few seconds, just looking at each other and feeling out this whole new talking thing they seem to be trying. It feels good. Her hair is just starting to curl up again with the moisture from being this close to the sea, the little baby hairs in her temple springing out, and he can’t really stop himself from pushing it behind her ear.

Later he’s going to think about the way her eyes went straight to his lips, he’ll recall her tongue coming out a little to lick her lower lip, the way her breathing changed and exactly how her perfume smelled. But right then all he could think is _don’t fuck this up_ and how there is an actual riot going on in his stomach, and _oh my God, are my hands sweaty?_ Because apparently he’s regressed into a twelve year old who has never gotten this close to another human ever.

It’s not a perfect kiss, but it’s _real_ and it’s happening and in a way it’s really _them_. Not perfect, really unlikely, and it just fits. She kisses him back right away, and he relaxes because even though she _said_ she wants this too it’s a whole other thing to feel it. Then her hand goes into his hair at the nape of his neck and his brain stops functioning altogether.

When the kiss dies, he keeps his eyes closed for a second before looking at her and finding her smiling at him.

“We should go to bed” she says, and immediately looks regretful.

“Couldn’t wait to get me in bed, huh?”

“To _sleep_ , Roman.” They lay there in silence for a few minutes, hands barely touching at first, until she seeks his out. It won’t take them too long to sleep, they both had a really long day. It feels right, though, just laying there beside her, and he kind of wants to fight it for a little while, drag this out and enjoy it. “I like that we talked.” her sleepy voice feels warm and welcoming and he just smiles, even if she can’t see it in the dark. His only response is to squeeze her hand softly.

The fact that most of his family’s in this house while they’re sharing a room and a bed when no one is supposed to know about them yet crosses his mind, but he decides that’s a problem for morning Roman. His final thoughts before he goes to sleep is that he’s never really called anywhere else a home. And maybe that’s what this is. Maybe they’re building a home, together.

* * *

On Wednesday, back home in New York, he wakes up to an empty bed and a text on his phone.

_You’re still up for spitting in a cup? **5:57am**_

So that’s a great start to his day. It’s good news, really, kind of. At least he thinks it is. The deal with his father seems to be moving forward, then. He’s explicitly asked Gerri not to tell him too much about it when it came up, and they talked about how it makes him feel. He’s still not comfortable with this newfound knowledge of his father, and doesn’t think he ever will.

Gerri’s already left the apartment by the time he gets ready, and he only allows himself to be a little upset he didn’t get to kiss her good morning before work. They have way too much happening right now, and at least three shareholder meetings today alone. So that’s probably why it _really_ gets to him when he realises it’s the fourth time he’s found cousin Greg seemingly following him, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

He calls Kendall immediately. “You can call off your guard dog, or whatever it is Greg thinks he’s doing.”

“Well, hello to you too.” Kendall seems to be in a bad mood today, but well, aren’t they all?

“I’m serious. Call it off. I can’t have him stalking me around all day. Whatever it is we can talk directly.”

“Look, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he sighs, and it’s believable. Almost. “Greg’s not _stalking_ you, technically he’s still a Waystar employee.”

“He is? Maybe I’ll have to fix that then.”

“No, bro, seriously. Leave him alone, you’re being paranoid. I didn’t send him to do anything, and I don’t have any reason to.”

“Forgive me for doubting you, but it wouldn’t be the first time you plot against this family.”

“Rome, seriously, you might not have anything better to do but _I_ have.” Touchy.

“Alright, sorry man, just joking. You really didn’t send him then?”

“No, Rome. I didn’t.”

He suddenly realizes Kendall sounds really tired, so maybe he really is telling the truth. “Alright then. See you soon.” Roman hangs up and decides he’s going to have to find a way to get Greg alone somewhere private, and soon, otherwise he’ll never get rid of this new six-foot shadow of his.

Maybe he’ll stall in the bathroom after their last meeting of the day. It’ll work to annoy Gerri too, and that might at least bring him a fun night, if anything.

* * *

“So, yeah,” he concludes. “Long story short, I saw you fucking Gerri.”

Roman relaxes a tiny fraction, because clearly Greg is bluffing. The only night anything happened at the Hamptons was before their talk, and he hadn’t fucked Gerri then. Still hasn’t. He makes a mental note to change that soon. “Really?” he asks, leaning against the sink. “You saw me and Gerri fucking. My penis was in her vagina. That’s what you’re telling me?” 

But that lasts all of two seconds.

“Well, no, not exactly. You were more, well—you know, she was talking, and you were—” Greg is very uncomfortably gesturing around his crotch, and cold dread goes through Roman’s spine. Not off the hook, then. Gerri is going to fucking kill him. No, worst, she’ll chop off his dick. He’ll definitely never touch her _now_.

“She was being mean to you,” Greg adds.

He scoffs, trying his best to sound confident in his bluff. “You plan to tell people Gerri was saying mean things to me while I diddled myself like a pervert? Does that sound like something people are going to believe?” He pauses for effect, thinks he sees Greg’s confidence falter a little. “I’m a sex god with a hot girlfriend who can have anyone I want, and she’s a highly respectable widower. Does anything about that track?” And sure, maybe he is pushing it a little too much. He hasn’t even spoken to Tabitha in weeks, not since they had a fight, not even after he was kidnapped. He assumed they’re broken up, but that’s not something he told anyone about. And it’s not like Greg would _know_ he’s very far from being a sex god. _And_ his girlfriend _is_ hot. Wife. Whatever.

But then maybe he did push too hard, because Greg suddenly doesn’t look convinced.

“Tom believed it.”

Alarm bells start ringing in his head. If his sister knows, he’s dead. “You told Tom? Did he tell Shiv?”

“No.” and _God_ , if he survives this conversation Roman’s sure he won’t last much longer. Can the human body survive this many highs and lows in such a short timespan? “But he could. He could call her right now.”

It shouldn’t relax Roman that it’s come to this, but it does. Blackmail he knows, he can deal with that. He steels himself for battle, trying to remember the advices Gerri gave him before the dinner with his siblings last month. “So this is blackmail?” he sighs, throwing his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. What are you looking for here?”

“It’s not blackmail.” It takes a lot out of Roman not to outright laugh at that. “It’s just, uh, um, a mutually beneficial arrangement? We don’t rock the boat, you make sure there’s a place for us in the new world order?”

“New world order? Jesus, man, we’ve really fucked you up.” He makes a face, and remembers Gerri talking about how she was back in Yale, all the protests and plans she’d had. How quickly that hope had all washed away when she became witness to all the power Logan has. Had? “You do realize the other half of this equation is Gerri, right? I understand you look at me, you think ‘oh Roman, what an idiot, what a pushover.’ But _Gerri?_ Gerri is terrifying.”

“I noticed”

Roman scowls, because what the _fuck._ Is Greg the Egg taking a piss out of his sex life?? “Ha, ha, laugh it up. At least I’m getting laid. You’ve never had a date in your life. Is that why you had time to stalk me? Did you get off on it? I bet you did, you sick fuck. I bet you jerk off at night thinking about how good I have it.” And yeah, maybe he’s lashing out a little, but fuck this. He can’t have _Greg_ lording anything over him.

“Be that as it may, it seems like it’s in your best interest for Kendall and Shiv not to find out about this.”

Roman drums his fingers against his arm, trying to clear his head and not think too emotionally about this. “Okay, but what’s my guarantee, here? You, I get. This way, you have me _and_ Kendall looking out for you, so no matter what, you win. Fine. But Tom? How do I know he doesn’t go to Shiv? Get it in as a little foreplay, woo her back with insider info?”

Greg seems to hesitate, and Roman takes note of it. Why did Greg even talk to Tom about this, anyway?

“Think about it this way. If there’s no room for us at a Waystar Royco run by Roman Roy, then it’s _really_ in our best interests to make sure Waystar Royco isn’t run by you. If there is, why would we say anything?”

It feels a little weird to hear him say _a Waystar Royco run by Roman Roy_ , like something’s missing. But it seems an easy enough solution, so he tries to hold back his annoyance at that. And, well, seems like Cousin Greg did indeed get caught up in the Roy curse. “Are you sure you’re only our cousin? Maybe dad got it in with your mom or something. Because you’re really channeling him right now.”

“Does that mean we have a deal?”

Roman pushes away from the sink, spins, and turns on the faucet. “It means let me talk to Gerri. It also means you’re an asshole. I hope you’re proud.”

Greg will get what he wants, of course. It’s easy enough to give him what he’s asking right now, and if this blackmail thing drags on… Well, he remembers Gerri’s words to him on the car ride to Kendall’s pseudo office. ‘ _Know when to retreat, know what’s the one thing you’ll protect at all costs, what you won’t give up._ ’

And he won’t give her up. He _can’t_.

* * *

Not five minutes after he gets back into the office Gerri walks in and hands him an envelope. A look at the symbol on the back is all it takes, and he doesn’t dare open it here. It’s from the laboratory in Virginia, and it’s their get out of jail free card. Quite literally. Oh well, maybe blackmail is just the family way.

**Author's Note:**

> Kendall's lines from the press conference are taken from the show, and the underlined ones in the Roman/Greg bathroom scene are taken from Mutually Advantageous Arrangements.
> 
> how lesbian is it of them to be actually literally married and asking each other if they have feelings for each other like !!!!!! grow up!!!!! I can’t stand them really. Also, I just put Stewy there bc I liked the idea of inserting another unexpected couple here, he wasn't in the original fic at all.


End file.
